MISHPOCHA

What does family mean? A group of people related by blood? A circle of friends who share the same outlook on life? A community bound by fate? Or the kind of community that emerges through creative collaboration?

Musician Mike D has an answer to these questions. It is closely tied to the story of his band, the Beastie Boys: “We were only able to achieve all of this thanks to the incredible people we met and collaborated with.” With their crossover of jazz, punk, and hip-hop—as well as music, fashion, and art—the three Jewish guys from New York became international stars.

Based on conversations with Mike D about family, origin, community, and artistic collaboration, the Jewish Museum, together with Atelier Markgraph and the IMA Clique, developed the interdisciplinary project MISHPOCHA – a plea for the power of creative collaboration. It takes place as part of the World Design Capital year in Frankfurt and the Rhine-Main region, under the motto “Design for Democracy: Atmospheres for a Better Life.”

MISHPOCHA. The Art of Collaboration reinterprets the Yiddish term “Mischpoche” as a plea for the power of creative collaboration. The project is rooted in interdisciplinary cooperation and creates new social and cultural spaces for artistic experimentation.

At its core is an exhibition featuring contemporary artworks and installations - vibrant, pop-cultural, and interactive. Works on display include those by Tammy Rae Carland, Ira Eduardovna, Jennifer Finch, Jan Ove Hennig, Daniel Herrmann, Jessica Ostrowicz, Deborah Kass, Alica Khaet, Sandra Mann, Beatrice Moumdjian, Geoff McFetridge, Hetain Patel, Nirit Takele, Mika Väisänen, Shimon Wanda, Fabian Werfel as well as a further development of the photographic essay “Mischpoche” by Jan Zappner.

The exhibition is complemented by a diverse MISHPOCHA program featuring open stages, workshops, concerts, performances, talks, communal meals, two satellite exhibitions, and the MISHPOCHA MAG.

The exhibition opens with a specially developed sound installation that makes the many meanings and associations of the word “Mischpoche” (Yiddish for family) tangible. Visitors hear different voices responding in various languages to the questions: What does Mischpoche mean? What role does family play in your life? What experiences and ideas do you associate with the word?

The second room presents drawings, paintings, conceptual art, photographs, and video works that explore family histories. These contemporary works revolve around memories of migration and displacement, feelings of alienation, new languages, and the search for a place that can be called home. Experiences of loss—such as the loss of a mother or grandmother—as well as objects of remembrance and inheritance also play a role. Together, they touch on universal questions of origin, belonging, and memory.

The largest room in the exhibition is an explosion of the senses. It consists of an interactive multimedia installation that immerses visitors in the spirit of various musical subcultures. Large-scale projections and immersive soundscapes make punk, the Riot Grrrl movement, techno, and hip-hop tangible. These scenes represent more than musical styles: they shape communities, raise questions of identity and attitude, and have had a profound impact on cultural and social developments.

The final room invites visitors to make music together. In a focused studio setting, electronic pads and a microphone are available. Visitors are encouraged to combine sounds and beats into new samples and enjoy the music. Making music together at the end of the exhibition creates a shared creative experience—the emergence of a new Mischpoche.

MISHPOCHA is aimed at anyone curious about contemporary art, cultural movements, and the connection between music, memory, and community. The exhibition offers new, sometimes surprising perspectives and invites visitors to discover the museum as a place of exchange, resonance, and shared experience. It begins on the museum forecourt with a sculpture by Deborah Kass consisting of the letters Y and O: OY? YO!

The Open Stage on the forecourt of the Jewish Museum is a platform for cultural education, artistic practice, and democratic togetherness. It makes creative voices visible in a relaxed atmosphere for a broad and diverse audience. The Open Stage is open to everyone: music groups and bands, dance groups, MCs and rappers, DJs, poetry slammers, school bands, youth groups, collectives, independent artists, and participatory projects.

PERIOD:

April 17 – June 30, 2026
and September 1 – September 27, 2026
(July and August break)

TECHNICAL SETUP:

Stage (4 × 4 m),
seating and sun umbrellas

SLOTS & DURATION TIMES:

Freely available daily from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Fridays from 4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. (registration required)

On Fridays, technical support for performances is provided. If you are interested in performing on this day, please contact: veranstaltungen.jmf@stadt-frankfurt.de

All information can be found in the flyer.

The Open Stage: The Art of Collaboration is conceived as an invitation to collaborate, to meet, and to collectively shape public space through art, culture, and creative practice. Antisemitic, racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise discriminatory or violence-glorifying content will not be permitted on our stage.

Mishpocha Mag is the cultural magazine accompanying the project. Inspired by the Yiddish term Mischpoche, it reflects in images and texts on the connections between family, art, and music. With contributions by Aida Baghernejad, Dmitrij Kapitelman, Klaus Walter, and Franziska Krah, as well as an interview with Mike D (Beastie Boys), it invites readers to rethink family—as a metaphor for artistic relationships and forms of connection beyond biological structures: Roundtable Interview “The Making of MISHPOCHA”

Mishpocha Mag costs €10 and is available at the bookstore of the Jewish Museum Frankfurt as well as here. 

The project is accompanied by concerts, artist talks, performances, lectures, workshops, discussions, dinners, and guided tours.

An overview of the program can be found in this flyer.

Two satellite exhibitions at other locations extend the MISHPOCHA cosmos into the Rhine-Main region.

MARCELO BRODSKY: MEMORY IN ACTION (March 26, 2026 – June 28, 2026)

Kunsthaus Wiesbaden presents “Memory in Action,” an exhibition featuring both earlier and new works by Argentine artist and photographer Marcelo Brodsky on themes of memory, violence, and solidarity. Brodsky gained international recognition with his series “Buena Memoria” (1997), which addresses the deportation and murder of several of his classmates and his brother Fernando Brodsky during Argentina’s military dictatorship.

The form of image-based commentary he developed there was further explored in subsequent photo essays, including the series “1968 – The Fire of Ideas,”“Africa in the Struggle for Freedom,”“Mandela,” and “The Struggle Against Apartheid.” Kunsthaus Wiesbaden presents these series alongside new works by Brodsky that engage with the work of Joseph Beuys and Marcel Broodthaers.

UNDER THE SKIN: TATTOOS IN FOCUS  (April 30, 2026 – September 13, 2027)

The Opelvillen Rüsselsheim  The present the exhibition “Under the Skin: Tattoos in Focus,” featuring works by artists such as Jan Zapper and Sandra Mann, whose work is also part of MISHPOCHA and who expand their artistic practice through tattooing. Whether on paper, canvas, printing plates, or human skin, drawing is always the point of departure.

At the heart of the extensive exhibition is the photographic estate of Herbert Hoffmann (1919–2010), who was both a tattoo artist and portrait photographer. Also on view are contemporary tattooing artists trained at art academies, who work on paper as well as on the human body—including works by Jan Zappner, who is likewise part of MISHPOCHA.

MISHPOCHA: The Art of Collaboration is held under the patronage of the Hessian Minister-President Boris Rhein.

We would like to thank the following for their financial support: Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, World Design Capital, Commerzbank Foundation, Georg and Franziska Speyer University Foundation, Ernst Max von Grunelius Foundation, Bankhaus Metzler, Dr. Hans Feith and Dr. Elisabeth Feith Foundation, Fazit Foundation, and the Society of Friends and Supporters of the Jewish Museum.

We are pleased to have media partnerships with WELTKUNST and the FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG.